Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

The forum to discuss anything related to these other styles of catching fish
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by davelumb »

They don't always squeak, but squeak they do. :smile:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Pikerd74 »

They are present in the fens according to internet sources, I can’t work out why I have not caught one :scratch:

Don’t they take a mackerel tail? :joker:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Will Smith »

Well, you live and learn, I never knew that they squeaked either :laughs: .

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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Will Smith »

Don't suppose you have a recording somewhere of one squeaking for us Dave ?

:boing:

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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by davelumb »

Will Smith wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 20:10 -
Don't suppose you have a recording somewhere of one squeaking for us Dave ?

:boing:

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Sorry no. I tried a quick youtube search but didn't find anything!
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Will Smith »

davelumb wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 20:22 -
Will Smith wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 20:10 -
Don't suppose you have a recording somewhere of one squeaking for us Dave ?

:boing:

Will.
Sorry no. I tried a quick youtube search but didn't find anything!
Me neither.

There is a bit of stuff on Google about the squeaking but no recordings that I could find.

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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Mercman »

I used to catch loads of Gudgeon when a kid in the Lea Valley and had not seen any for years.

This year on my local Essex River I caught half a dozen whilst float fishing maggots. I have never caught any before on this river so I am thinking that maybe they are coming back into our rivers. I really hope so, fabulous little fish.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by ADAM-F »

A very pretty fish.
I had 6 for some time in a 250l aquarium (4ft). They looked great and the aquarium was set up really nice with plants, bog wood, rocks, pebbles and gravel.
Then one day I caught a load of freshwater shrimps and added them as a treat for the gudgeon. The gudgeon were straight on them hunting them down with amazing aggression and the remaining shrimps fled for cover under the stones etc.
Well 10 mins later the whole tanks was destroyed!. All the plants were uprooted and floating, the wood and rocks turned over and the gravel looked like a ploughed field. I would never had believed the destructive power of such a tiny fish if I hadn't seen it for myself.
They punch well above their size. :fight:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Shiv »

Fentiger01 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 18:45 -
Shiv wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 18:10 -
Fentiger01 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 18:00 -
brendan taaffe wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 17:00 -
davelumb wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 13:18 -
John Milford wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 12:57 -
Pikerd74 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 12:48 -
I’ve been fishing for 30years and never caught one :shrug: are there any in Fenland??
I think gudgeon are a bit like ruffe - they're either prolific or absent, depending on the water system, with not much in between. :shrug:
And they can disappear from waters.

A mate of mine put some in his small garden pond and they bred like rabbits. Grew to a good size too. :grin:
Myself and my brother put 4 gobios in our dad's garden pool with his koi. We said nothing! The following year Dad copped on there were loads of these little fish competing for pond sticks. He wasn't impressed! The pond was drained down to collect them. We moved over 200 gudgeon to nearby watercourses! Two buckets on the bike handlebars was the mode of transport!
I can remember a shallow and muddy church lake I used fish nearly 30 years ago, it was rammed with stunted Carp and billions of Gudgeon.

My kids managed one each last summer from W.Avon. Lovely little fish. :thumbs:

Another pit member and I used to have regular Gudgeon matches on our local riverx 40yrs ago when we were kids. Snow, rain or shine! :grin:
I Remember, :laughs: :laughs: :thumbs:
:thumbs: happy days Shivvy
They certainly were Dave, we caught plenty back then, what went wrong, :laughs: :laughs: :thumbs:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Shiv »

ADAM-F wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 21:34 -
A very pretty fish.
I had 6 for some time in a 250l aquarium (4ft). They looked great and the aquarium was set up really nice with plants, bog wood, rocks, pebbles and gravel.
Then one day I caught a load of freshwater shrimps and added them as a treat for the gudgeon. The gudgeon were straight on them hunting them down with amazing aggression and the remaining shrimps fled for cover under the stones etc.
Well 10 mins later the whole tanks was destroyed!. All the plants were uprooted and floating, the wood and rocks turned over and the gravel looked like a ploughed field. I would never had believed the destructive power of such a tiny fish if I hadn't seen it for myself.
They punch well above their size. :fight:
Totally agree bud, cracking little Fish, our Dave was great at catching them, :thumbs:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by brendan taaffe »

Pikerd74 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 19:40 -
John Milford wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 19:21 -
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the gudgeon's most endearing quality - they squeak! :grin:
They what? :scratch: really!
Yes they do! Especially when you tell them they are pike bait! 😂
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Shiv »

brendan taaffe wrote: Thu Feb 04 2021 01:37 -
Pikerd74 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 19:40 -
John Milford wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 19:21 -
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the gudgeon's most endearing quality - they squeak! :grin:
They what? :scratch: really!
Yes they do! Especially when you tell them they are pike bait! 😂
:laughs: :laughs: :laughs: :thumbs:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Pinkie »

I lost a fiver because of a gudgeon. I bet my son that he couldn't catch one with a fly. He duly proved me wrong and readily caught one using a blood worm imitation by jigging it over a gravel bank. Initially he caught a few perch, but persisted with the bet after seeing some gudgeon going for his fly.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Squaze 123 »

Had some large ones many years ago fishing matches on the Trent and Mersey canal
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Oldskoolfool »

I'd not seen one or caught one for ages but found a small river with a population this summer. Loved a return to my youth with a small porcupine quill and single maggot using a centre pin. They used to be really common everywhere so what happened?
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Fentiger01 »

Shiv wrote: Thu Feb 04 2021 00:21 -
ADAM-F wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 21:34 -
A very pretty fish.
I had 6 for some time in a 250l aquarium (4ft). They looked great and the aquarium was set up really nice with plants, bog wood, rocks, pebbles and gravel.
Then one day I caught a load of freshwater shrimps and added them as a treat for the gudgeon. The gudgeon were straight on them hunting them down with amazing aggression and the remaining shrimps fled for cover under the stones etc.
Well 10 mins later the whole tanks was destroyed!. All the plants were uprooted and floating, the wood and rocks turned over and the gravel looked like a ploughed field. I would never had believed the destructive power of such a tiny fish if I hadn't seen it for myself.
They punch well above their size. :fight:
Totally agree bud, cracking little Fish, our Dave was great at catching them, :thumbs:
We used to get them from the gravels under a decent flow, so I can dig that they would root around the stone etc Adam but that level of destruction at that size? :worthy:

The more I hear about them, the more I love them. Shivvy and I used to get some decent ones as kids. Great fish on light gear for ten year olds. :thumbs:

My first Pike came to a Gudgeon livebait. :red: :red: :red:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Chris Hammond »

A bloke fishing lures for perch on the river called me over to see a gudgeon of about three inches that he'd hooked on a five inch crank this summer. I would have struggled to believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. And oh the irony! I was fishing for gudgeon for bait and had only hooked countless small chub and roach from my banker swim. :red:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Chris Hammond »

There are several places I can pretty much guarantee to catch gudgeon on local rivers. They're no rarer here than they ever have been. I use them for perch every summer.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Kev Berry »

Mako234 wrote: Wed Feb 03 2021 18:50 -
not caught one for years used to be all i could catch when the eu banned suspended solids from the local river the water clarity greatly improved so did he numbers of perch zander and pike dont know if this had any effect on the gonk but not seen one for a decade at least
That did for the Trent gudgeon.....had 23lb of them one day.
Matches were regularly won with 20lb weights.
Nowadays you might be lucky to pick four or five up in a day....and nowhere near as big as the 2..3oz ones that the river was paved with back in the 70s 80s and 90s
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Pinkie »

Sadly, they're easy pickings for the cormorants and other fish predators.

In the summertime my son and I witnessed a gudgeon being chased by a pike right to the bank, where miraculously the gudgeon evaded capture because the pike was going so fast it had to stop dead otherwise crash into the bank. Being much smaller, the gudgeon didn't really need to stop and veered off along the bank. I caught the pike later that day on a small shad on a jig head. It was only about 6lb but great fun playing on my ultra lite rod.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Emma Hamilton »

I voted for Tracy Emin on this Gudgeon quiz as i rather liked the idea :cool:

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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by suffolk si »

I have an annual gudgeon match with my mates lad who ive taken fishing fairly regularly since he was about 12( he’s 18 this year so might grow out of it!) . It lasts an hour and you usually need around 40-50 fish to win it. Still plenty round my way, Always great fun!
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Steve Dennington »

suffolk si wrote: Fri Feb 05 2021 00:01 -
I have an annual gudgeon match with my mates lad who ive taken fishing fairly regularly since he was about 12( he’s 18 this year so might grow out of it!) . It lasts an hour and you usually need around 40-50 fish to win it. Still plenty round my way, Always great fun!
When I was a kid we used to get some real whoppers from the Wensum, but they're much fewer in number and much smaller these days :sad:

Not so long ago it was still fantastic sport, with simple totting tactics. Your next bite could be a roach, perch, dace, chub, gudgeon, minnow or brown trout. Rumours abounded of grayling, but I never caught one. Last time I went (about five years ago) it was a mammoth task to get through the minnows to anything else.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by peteren »

Chris Hammond wrote: Thu Feb 04 2021 18:48 -
A bloke fishing lures for perch on the river called me over to see a gudgeon of about three inches that he'd hooked on a five inch crank this summer. I would have struggled to believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. And oh the irony! I was fishing for gudgeon for bait and had only hooked countless small chub and roach from my banker swim. :red:
I had a 4" gudgeon on a 2" kopyto shad once - fairly hooked in the mouth.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Iain Gillies »

I've had one before on a size 0 mepps out of a river which has quite a low population of them. I've also taken a few grayling and dace on small 0 and 00 mepps on the same river fishing for perch, chub and brown trout.
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Iain Gillies »

There is a small pond not too far away which must be less than an acre where you could easily catch 4-500 or more in a day. They aren't big but you get a few 2-3oz ones amongst them. I remember a friend thought he had a potential British record claim when he caught a fish about 8oz on maggots trotting for dace, but the EA stocked the river recently with small barbel which it intact was!
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Chris Hammond »

peteren wrote: Fri Feb 05 2021 17:35 -
Chris Hammond wrote: Thu Feb 04 2021 18:48 -
A bloke fishing lures for perch on the river called me over to see a gudgeon of about three inches that he'd hooked on a five inch crank this summer. I would have struggled to believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. And oh the irony! I was fishing for gudgeon for bait and had only hooked countless small chub and roach from my banker swim. :red:
I had a 4" gudgeon on a 2" kopyto shad once - fairly hooked in the mouth.
Obviously feisty little beggars then Pete!
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Chris Hammond »

There used to be a little carp/tench brick pit locally that was leased by a local factory for its social club. My mate's dad worked there so he had a ticket. They awarded a nice trophy annually to the fish judged to be the best specimen of the season. He won it one year with a 6oz gudgeon. :cool:
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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by Monts »

Emma Hamilton wrote: Thu Feb 04 2021 23:39 -
I voted for Tracy Emin on this Gudgeon quiz as i rather liked the idea :cool:

rob

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Re: Gudgeon Book - Dr Mark Everard

Post by peteren »

Iain Gillies wrote: Fri Feb 05 2021 20:03 -
I've had one before on a size 0 mepps out of a river which has quite a low population of them. I've also taken a few grayling and dace on small 0 and 00 mepps on the same river fishing for perch, chub and brown trout.
Assuming you've lured pike too from that river Iain?
Makes seven lured species - good going!👍
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